The great gothic novel

Marx's "Das Kapital": A Biography by Francis Wheen
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It's hard to explain how good an introduction to Marx's 'Das Kapital' this is. Wheen has already given us a good account of Marx's life, and here he takes on the biography (conception, composition, content and reception) of Marx's famous work. Marxist economics can be pretty dull (as anyone who has tried to get through Mandel's Marxist Economic Theory will know). But Wheen's book is terrifically lively. Not only does he give us a sense of Marx (and his friend Engels) but also reminding us that Das Kapital should be read as a great gothic novel, on the shelf next to 'Frankenstein.' Marx himself considered 'Das Kapital' as a work of literature and it is filled with references to Shakespeare and Dante. In the book, Marx takes us into the dungeons of industrial capitalism, filled with smoke and spectres, infernal flames and devilish overseers. Wheen manages to convey the wonder of this while giving us its central theses in clear and concise form. His survey of its reception is equally efficient, even if there are plenty of disagreements one might have with him.

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Mixed Martial Arts

I blogged about it at Overland.

Not for Children

Over at Overland, I blogged about the Game of Thrones TV series.

Where is the Creative Writing Culture Industry?

At my talk at the Melbourne Free University about the way Hollywood constructs narratives, I talk about Adorno and Horkheimer's notion of culture as an industry. Reading their famous 1940s essay today, one is struck by its prescience. Attempting to explain the concepts of standardization (mechanical reproduction), perhaps I didn't emphasise the limits of the Adorno/Horkheimer position, which contains no space for opposition or artistic innovation. Theirs is truly a totalitarian vision.

Still, it reminds me of a conversation Jeff and I had a few weeks ago, where we wondered why publishing hadn't yet become an industry in the same way. Where is the application of scientistic technique to publishing? Why not organise the industry in the same way as the film industry? Where are the equivalents of script consultants for novels, of rewriting by second and third authors, of the literary equivalent of film "preview screenings", and so on.

Of course, the industry is trending this way: James Patterson is the creator of a wildly successful story factory in which he hires others to write novels he has written an outline of. The Guardian writes of Patterson:

Unlike many authors, he relishes the business of marketing...

On one occasion, Patterson even changed the ending of a book - Cat And Mouse, published in 1997 - after readers of the advance copies complained that the ending was frustrating. That kind of audience-testing is common in Hollywood, but not in publishing.

More disturbing is James Frey's 'Factory", as described by The New York Mag.The author of the interesting article takes the contract offered by Frey to the Author's Guild. The author writes:

The Authors Guild got back to me with serious concerns over the contract. Anita Fore, its director of legal services, suggested that I attempt to negotiate if I wanted to go ahead and sign with Full Fathom Five. I later spoke to Conrad Rippy, a veteran publishing attorney, who explained that the contract given to me wasn’t a book-packaging contract; it was “a collaboration agreement without there being any collaboration.” He said he had never seen a contract like this in his sixteen years of negotiation. “It’s an agreement that says, ‘You’re going to write for me. I’m going to own it. I may or may not give you credit. If there is more than one book in the series, you are on the hook to write those too, for the exact same terms, but I don’t have to use you. In exchange for this, I’m going to pay you 40 percent of some amount you can’t verify—there’s no audit provision—and after the deduction of a whole bunch of expenses.” He described it as a Hollywood-style work-for-hire contract grafted onto the publishing industry—“although Hollywood writers in a work-for-hire contract are usually paid more than $250.”

How long until this attitude completely dominates? How long until publishing becomes an industry more like film?

The Library of Forgotten Books ebook

My little collection is currently free, for those with a Kindle, on Amazon.

Jekyll and Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson




Another tale rightfully seared into our collective consciousness, the experience of reading it can't be anything like that of its first, unsuspecting, readers. But a nicely plotted little tale of mystery, its final section, when Jekyll makes his confession, is chilling. For his tale resonates with anyone who has felt divided within themselves, and who would claim never to have felt such internal conflicts? At once a tale of an addict, a Jungian shadow, and the everyman of Victorian England, this last element is perhaps the one which modern readers might miss. In our more liberated society, the hints towards homosexuality might easily go unnoticed. The modern Jekyll, of course, would no longer be the "gentleman" but rather the "good husband" and "family man", whose horrible secrets are known only to himself. In terms of narrative, the moments in which Hyde begins to take over Jekyll's body against Jekyll's will are the most chilling. They make this a classic horror tale, as well as a critique of Victorian hypocrisy.



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Controversies on Film

I'll be speaking at the Melbourne Free University on March 15, as part of their Controversies on Film series. The blurb currently reads:

Synopsis: Rjurik Davidson examines the ways that narratives are constructed by the film industry. He will look at the industry’s dominant ideas about scriptwriting (including some of the ‘exercises’ suggested for scriptwriters) and the way that they, in conjunction with the process of getting a film made, tend to create a certain kind of film. Scenes from romantic comedies will be shown to examine the narrative template they adhere to. Director’s cuts will be compared to the initially released versions of Blade Runner and Dark City, to show some of the kinds of changes encouraged to narratives to make films commercially successful.

The talk will include some of my own experiences in the film industry and will also discuss Adorno and Horkheimer's concept of the Culture Industry. Come along if you'd like. Runs for 6.30-8.30 and the venue is: Long Play 318 St Georges Road, North Fitzroy 3068

One reason I love Le Guin

Is the fact that she says things like this (from her review of The Stone Gods:

It’s odd to find characters in a science-fiction novel repeatedly announcing that they hate science fiction. I can only suppose that Jeanette Winterson is trying to keep her credits as a ‘literary’ writer even as she openly commits genre. Surely she’s noticed that everybody is writing science fiction now? Formerly deep-dyed realists are producing novels so full of the tropes and fixtures and plotlines of science fiction that only the snarling tricephalic dogs who guard the Canon of Literature can tell the difference. I certainly can’t. Why bother? I am bothered, though, by the curious ingratitude of authors who exploit a common fund of imagery while pretending to have nothing to do with the fellow-authors who created it and left it open to all who want to use it. A little return generosity would hardly come amiss.

When was the last time someone from the literary world went in to battle for those who "commit genre"? I think Atwood has written kindly about Le Guin before, but I do have some trouble recalling someone who borrows from genre talk about how interesting/inspiring/etc SF is.